Uttarakhand one among 6 states for National Forestry Monitoring System

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand is one of the six states where pilot project for National Forestry Monitoring System (NFMS) is going to be started. Other states are Madhya Pardesh, Karnatka, Punjab, West Bengal and Meghalaya. NFMS will be conducted under the overall guidance of ministry of environment and forests and climate change (MoEF) and with the technical assistance of Food and Agriculture Organisation of United Nations, The pilot project will come to an end by December next year.This project will also train forestry personnel of these state Governments to collect the ground data of forests.
Director General of Forest in MOEF, SS Negi said, “The largest region in Uttarakhand is consisting of forest so it is quite an important state for NFMS study. Punjab which does not have much of forest too has been included in the pilot study. Punjab has cultivated large tree cover outside the forests. So this state can not ignored. Similarly Meghalaya has most of their forest which are owned by the communities so that will be a different experience. Similarly West Bengal is known for its mangrove. So each state has been selected for their unique forestry management. They represent different locations in the country.”
According to Saibal Dasgupta, director general of Forest Survey of India, initially forest personal of six states will be trained in NFMS , then more states will be taken. “The forestry personal will collect ground data about presence of various aspects of forest which include the various vegetative species such as tree, bush, grass, invasive species such as lantana, diseases in wood, regeneration or regression of species, etc. The NFMS data will be used to carry out national and state level integrated assessments related to forestry.” He said, once the forest personal learn the technique to carry out the study and its assessment, then they can do the comparative study in future as well.